Victorville Bank Bust
Location: Victorville, California Date: January 24, 1992 Story On the morning of January 24, 1992, the citizens of Victorville were beginning their day and the mall was opening up. At 9:30am at the bank across the street, a white van pulled up and four masked men got out and stormed in brandishing AK 47s. At the San Bernardino Dispatch Center Linda Samples took the call as Debbie Witcomb told her that a 211 bank robbery was in progress. She handed the call to Donna Haggerty and the Victorville Police was dispatched. Inside the bank Lorie Emmerich was hiding in an office and heard the robbers shout, "Hand over the keys or I will blow your head off." The manager locked the vault and armed the time locks to prevent them from entering it. Minutes later the police arrived on the scene and Witcomb and her friend pointed out the robbers as they charged out of the bank with the loot. They got in their van, sped toward Interstate 15, and began the longest high speed chase at that time. As they were getting away the robbers shot at the officers from the van. Halfway through the pursuit they failed to close the door, dropped their loot, and it flew out of the van. They then headed to the Kmart parking lot outside the mall on Center Street and got into their getaway cars. Carroll Best took over the pursuit at this point and followed them. Before the second car could come out Deputy Lisa Trask attempted to pit it and box them in, but the robbers crossed the berm and escaped after the blue car. Trask had only been on patrol for four months, but she continued the pursuit backing up Best. Randy Gill picked up the loot that was given to him by Witcomb and her friends and he sped off to back up Trask and Best and catch the robbers. The robbers then turned onto Interstate 15 and started shooting at the officers and civilians. Gill and Trask pitted the white car and it hit a fence. The robbers got out, jumped the fence, and headed to the trailer park. The blue car was also taken out and Best arrested the suspects. Haggerty tried to contact her but got no answer. Best finally contacted Haggerty and Deputy Wardroom and told her the suspects were caught, they called Code 4, and the robbers were loaded into the police van and taken to prison. In the trailer park Highway Patrol lead by Steve Barnard searched the trailers for the robbers. They finally got them two hours after the robbery ending the pursuit. Jonathan Harrington, Gary Edward Alexander, Anthony Hicks, and Willy Harris were convicted of armed robbery and sentenced to 30 years in prison without parole. They each were from out of town and had multiple convictions for robbery in California, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, New Mexico, Idaho, and Oregon before they attempted this stickup. Because of the work of the dispatchers, the citizens of Victorville, Victorville Police, and Highway Patrol, the robbers were caught. At the reunion party Gill, Best, and Trask said it was all about teamwork which is the reason why the robbers got caught. Category:1992 Category:California Category:Robberies Category:Shootings Category:Motor-Vehicle Accidents Category:Crimes Category:Police Chases